Fertility doctor who spent the past 40 years impregnating women with his own sperm without them knowing is spared jail
Dr Donald Cline could have fathered as many as 20 children but was given a one-year suspended sentence
A RETIRED fertility doctor who impregnated dozens of unwitting patients with his own sperm has been spared jail time.
Dr Donald Cline was given a one-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice.
No other charges were filed against the 79-year-old Clint because Indiana law doesn't specifically prohibit fertility doctors from using their own sperm.
Cline was charged after lying to investigators, potentially facing up to three years in prison on each count.
The charges stemmed from two confirmed cases of paternity, but children of women treated by Cline said DNA tests show he is likely the biological father of as many as 20 of them.
Cline had told his patients they were receiving sperm from medical or dental residents or medical students, and that no single donor's sperm was used more than three times, according to court records.
Some of the now-adult children of Cline's former patients filed a complaint with the Indiana Attorney General's Office in 2014, after they became suspicious while scouring online records to find biological relatives.
Paternity tests performed the Marion County prosecutor's office determined Cline was likely the biological father of at least two of his patients' children, according to court records.
Cline, who retired in 2009, initially denied the allegations when he wrote to investigators, saying the women who filed the complaints were trying to slander him. On Thursday, he acknowledged that he had lied.
"Out of fear I acted alone and foolishly lied," he said during the hearing with a sometimes shaky voice.
But he mentioned only the two women who first filed complaints. He also didn't discuss his decision to use his own sperm in the 1970s and 1980s.
Court documents allege that Cline told six adults who believed they were his biological children that he had donated his own sperm about 50 times because he was trying to help his patients and didn't have access to fresh sperm.